A trio of Mi’kmaw apprentices are learning the skills to build a birchbark canoe from two master builders.

The course is eight weeks long and the group is in their seventh week at Kouchibougac National Park in New Brunswick, 85 kilometres north of Moncton, learning how to harvest birchbark, cedar and spruce root and craft a 4.5-metre long vessel. 

The apprentices are learning from master builders Rene Martin and Hank Caplin.

“You can see why they’re so revered and why their teachings and why their knowledge has stood the test of time,” said Gabrielle Barlow, from Indian Island First Nation. Full story here.